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| Greenhouse gas emissions may finally be decoupling from economic growth |
Until 2013 CO2 emissions had shown an increase
due to two main origins: natural and anthropogenic, being the anthropogenic the
most striking the last years.
However, 2014 was different, during this year
the result showed that CO2 emissions were maintained and in the absence of an
economy crisis.
Information from the International Energy
Agency (IEA) indicate that global emission of Carbon Dioxide stood at 32
gigatonnes in 2014, unchanged from the preceding year. It means that
sustainable alternatives may be having a positive impact keeping the same
levels in emissions.
In the last 40 years, the IEA has been
collecting data about this emission, and there have only been three times in
which emission have still or fallen compared to the previous year, but when
this happened, all were associated with global downturns:
1.
1980:
US recession
2.
1992:
Collapse of the former Soviet Union
3.
2009:
Global financial crisis
In 2014, however, the global economy grew 3%.
"For the next time, greenhouse gas emissions are decoupling from economic growth". Explained IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol, who was just named the next IEA executive director.
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| Nowadays China is the biggest investor in renewable energy |
In China,
2014 saw greater generation of electricity from renewable sources, such as
hydropower, solar and wind, and less burning of coal. In OECD economies, recent
efforts to promote more sustainable growth – including greater energy
efficiency and more renewable energy – are producing the desired effect of
decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions.
The objective for 2020s and 2030s is to limit the increase of the average global surface temperature to no more than 2 ºC to avoid climate change employing renewable energy.
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| Credit: IEA, Financial Times |
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